Close Up

"Filmed version of a real story"

"to create reality in front of camera and pull the truth out of it"

Abbas Kiarostami 

Close up made in 1990 directed by Abbas Kiarostami is a filmed version of real events, its a mixture of real documentary and reenactments following the events before, during and after the trial of Hossain Sabzian who had convinced a well off family in Tehran that he was famous director Mohsen Makmalbaf.

One of the most interesting things about this film is the casting, Kiarostami managed to get the whole Tehran family to play themselves even though in the film and probably in real life, they were made out to be quite foolish. Throughout the film the father claims that he knows the truth, but keeps it from the children to 'test' them. But how true this is we will never know. 

Its quite hard to know how much of any of this film is completely honest as even during the trial cameras were rolling and questions were being asked from behind the camera, and people change when they are in front of the camera. Hossain talks a lot about acting and who he wants to be in the trial, it makes it even stranger that he then goes on to act in the film. 

 Throughout the film we never really find out Hossain's intentions, but maybe thats because he didn't know what his intentions were, all he wanted was to make a film, which at the end, he did, if it wasn't for him this film wouldn't have been made. 

"A story like this doesn't come along every day"

One of the films first lines and its true, when a story like this comes along, its only natural to want to share the story or make a film about it.